


I WILL ALWAYS BE BY YOUR SIDE

by floatingcastle



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Compulsory Heterosexuality, Dissociation, Dubious Consent, F/M, Fleur Award, Lesbian Character, Love Confessions, Memories, Missionary Position, Non-Linear Narrative, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:54:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29323536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingcastle/pseuds/floatingcastle
Summary: #A3NSFWvalentine — Day Two: MemoriesSakyo finally confesses to Izumi, but only after they've won the Fleur Award. Izumi... reciprocates?
Relationships: Furuichi Sakyou & Tachibana Izumi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14
Collections: A3 NSFW Week: Valentine's Edition





	I WILL ALWAYS BE BY YOUR SIDE

Winning the Fleur Award has been a long time coming. Not to sound cocky, but you, Izumi Tachibana, knew that with all the work you’ve put in as a company, the universe would reward you all for your efforts. It’s only right to have a happy ending here, isn’t it?

You ride that high from the awards ceremony all the way through their festivities afterward, when half the troupe is drunk on celebration and joy. Azuma clinks his glass against yours as you pass each other in the hallway, and you share a giddy smile. It’s charming to see him with such childish joy on his face. 

Citron and Chikage are teasing Tenma about some cliche line he said while thanking the audience, Tsumugi has joined Homare in the ranks of drunk crying, and Itaru miraculously doesn’t have his phone in hand as he stews in the dorm’s collective euphoria. You can’t keep your eyes on everyone at once. They’re all moving, talking, chess pieces on a gameboard running their own show. 

How much grueling work have you put into this company? It’s your whole life. That can’t be overstated. 

You slink back against the wall, letting your shoulders release some of the weight that’s been there since the day started. Even if you all hadn’t won the Fleur Award, being nominated was a celebration enough on its own, and you would’ve been happy to give a rousing speech about how you’ll keep on trying no matter how long it takes. 

There’s still so many places you can go from here. 

You’re hit with a wave of exhaustion that’s always in the periphery of your vision. Mothering a dorm of 24 rambunctious theatre kids, making sure they don’t start stabbing each other, keeping track of every prop and costume and set piece… It gets to be a little much for one Director. 

But you love it, you really do. The Director’s a workaholic, all the troupe members know that, but you wouldn’t be working so hard if theatre wasn’t something you were fully willing to dedicate your life to. You barely know who you would be without Mankai Company. 

In the middle of your musings, someone comes by and taps your shoulder. You look up and meet Sakyo’s gaze with a smile that’s more strained than it should be on such a happy evening. 

“Can I talk to you?” he asks. 

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Can I talk to you… alone?”

Ah, you think. Is he going to give another long monologue about not getting complacent because they’ve met one of their goals? Your brain isn’t entirely there right now and you have a hard time paying attention to those speeches even on your best days. 

And he’s looking at you, but not really. That’s not how Sakyo looks at Izumi Tachibana most of the time. His eyes are soft and smiling, his lips slightly parted, face flush with slight drunkenness, and alarm bells start ringing in your head. 

You shake the anxiety away and try to put more enthusiasm in your voice. 

“Of course! We can go to my room, I was just thinking I needed a break from all this anyway. It’s nice, but it’s getting late and all… I’m not young enough to keep my energy up for so many hours like the Summer kids.” 

“Don’t talk about yourself like you’re getting old, brat.”

He ruffles your hair, you turtle up into your shoulders, you both chuckle. A familiar routine. 

“Sakyo, should I get you some water first? You’re looking a little tipsy there. I hope Azuma’s been going easy on everyone.”

“No—no, I’m alright. Let’s go.”

Sakyo clenches and unclenches his fists, then takes your hand and sweeps you off your feet to the bedroom. Not literally. It feels a little magical, is all, like one of Muku’s stories, as the white ceiling lights make you wince walking down the hall, they’re too bright, and everything is more intense than usual. Your head doesn’t hurt, but the overstimulation reminds you of a migraine. 

Sakyo shuts the door behind you and you find yourself overcome with relief, sitting down at the couch with the lights off. 

“What a day, huh?” You laugh.

Sakyo is still looking at you; he’s been looking at you almost without blinking this entire time. Like he can’t bear to draw his eyes away.

You shrink under that gaze, idly playing with the hem of your shirt, observing the walls and your loft bed and your clock and anything but the expectation present in Sakyo’s sight. It’s been years since you felt self-conscious like this, like some kind of high school romance protagonist. It’s silly. You’re reading into it. 

“It’s all thanks to you.”

“That’s not true, come on. You aren’t usually one to say stuff like that.”

Compliments from Sakyo, direct and sincere, are a rarity. They mean all the more for how careful he is with his words. Maybe you can get away with blaming his more obvious affection on the alcohol. 

“You’ve earned it, that’s all. And…”

He takes a step toward you from where he was standing at the door, arms crossed. Nods to himself. 

“...I want to tell you what I’ve been thinking all this time.”

He takes another step forward. You try not to hide in the cushions of the couch. 

“What’s gotten into you?” 

Okay. Just because this situation is straight out of one of Muku’s shoujo manga does not mean that he’s about to confess his love to you. Just because you won the Fleur Award does not mean that Sakyo’s finally letting himself confess his love. Just because he looks at you that way he doesn’t look at anyone else does not mean he has special feelings for you. 

Sakyo sits a perfectly reasonable distance away from you on the couch, neither too close nor too far, the way one would normally sit next to a good friend, which you are. He places his hands on his knees and steadies his breath. 

“I wouldn’t be the man I am today without you in my life, Izumi.”

Your breath hitches when he says your name. 

“You’re an incredible woman, you know that?”

He turns to you, eyes wide and determined, and he smiles like there’s nowhere else he would rather be right now. One shaking hand reaches for yours. 

“I love you. I’ve always, always been in love with you.”

It feels like a fact of the universe when he says the words out loud. It feels like something you’ve known this whole time. The weight of his feelings is going to crush you underfoot. 

One second passes, then another, and you have to give him an answer but you can’t remember how to speak.

Sakyo squeezes your hand, as if to reassure you, like a caring husband might do for his wife. 

“I understand if you want to focus on the troupe—I know you’ve said before that you don’t have the time for… romance. And I support you in that fully.”

You nod, slack-jawed. 

“Nothing has to change.”

That’s a lie. Things have already begun to change. The wheels of time spin forward without mercy, and the words inked into reality through conversation cannot be unheard. Now he knows that you know.

God, you’re an adult. Sakyo’s clearly trying to go about this in a mature and honest way, and you owe it to him to be just as clear. 

“Thank you,” and that’s real, coming from your heart. You squeeze his hand back. 

He blinks, tensing ever so slight in your grip like he’s expecting an incoming rejection, and you have to answer, you know that, and there’s something terribly wrong with you because you don’t want to give an answer. 

But you can’t stay in this limbo territory forever, because no matter how long this drags out, the sun will set and the next day will come and you have to answer his feelings. 

“Do you feel—Err, what do you think?” Sakyo pulls his hand away, wipes his sweaty palm off on his pants. 

“Sakyo. ...I love you, too.” 

The words tremble off your tongue and they’re real and you _do_ love him and you’re a horrible, horrible actor but not when the truth is so intimately mixed into your performance. 

He’s so relieved by your answer that he doesn’t even have a chance to register the smile falling from your face like an anchor before he pulls you in for a hug. 

And, under the excuse of alcohol and a new relationship, he lets himself do a lot more than that to you. 

You sip your coffee and check your work schedule on your phone. Tasuku just passed you on his way to a morning run, and Omi is in the kitchen flipping pancakes. Hisoka and Masumi are visible through the window to the courtyard, taking a nap under the shade of a tree. You turn a blind eye to the stray cat peeing on Masumi’s shoe. 

Kazunari peeks over your shoulder, startling you, and you almost spill your coffee. 

“Got a lotta time helping with other troupes, huh? OMG, are you cheating on us with other theater companies? Are we not enough for you, Director-chan?!”

He throws a hand to his forehead like a damsel in distress, and you know he means it as a joke. It stings a bit to have someone point it out so quickly, though. You didn’t mean to schedule so much time on other people’s territory. 

“Of course not. I need a lot more experience if we’re going to keep improving,” you explain. “Yuki and Azami are coming with me to some workshops, too. This is all gonna funnel back into making Mankai Company a better place.”

“That’s our incredible Director for you!” Kazunari snaps his fingers at you, grinning with approval. 

“You’re an incredible woman, you know that?”

He turns to you, eyes wide and determined, and he smiles like there’s nowhere else he would rather be right now. 

“Huh?”

You squeeze your eyes shut, take a breath, and let the chills make their way through your body before you respond… to Kazunari. 

“Thanks, I guess. I mean, thank you!”

“...Is something up? You know we’re always telling you to take more vacation days! Why not go on a date with me to chill?” He winks. 

You open your mouth, your breath catches as the word ‘date’ sticks in your mind, and you glance over your shoulder. 

“I-I shouldn’t. I’d like to hang out with you some other time, though. Just… work. You know.”

And that’s not technically a lie? It’s a lot of work keeping up with both the troupe and your private life. 

The sun goes up and down several times after the day you all win the Fleur Award. 

You’re not actually sure how many times, even though you keep diligent track of your schedule. 

Never late to appointments with your theater colleagues, especially that friendly all-female troupe who’s prepping for their next show. They congratulate you on the award so many times that you lose track of who you’ve already thanked. 

Everything is going super well, regardless of your diluted sense of time. 

“Hey, Director?” 

You stop arranging pillows on the couch and look up at Azuma who’s standing in your doorway. 

“What’s up? Need something, Azuma-san?”

“I was just walking by and you had your door open. I wanted to ask… why are you not sleeping in your bed?”

“Oh, that’s—”

Your bed is made as usual, blankets tucked in and pillows fluffed up, but it’s pretty obvious you aren’t planning to sleep there tonight given you took the ladder down. 

Sakyo storms into the room, long coat swooshing behind him in that endearingly dramatic fashion, and he pushes you down in bed. Hands pinned against your wrists, face so close to yours that you can feel his nervous breath. 

“I want you. It’s… embarrassing, how many times I’ve thought about this moment.” 

He kisses you, calm and kind, soft and sweet, so unlike the tough demeanor he likes to put up. 

It’s cold and wet. He lines kisses down your neck, sucks at your collarbone, leaves a mark behind that would only just be covered up by your jacket. Pauses to take off his glasses.

A calloused hand slides under your shirt, cold against your skin, and it teases against your nipple. Sakyo gropes at your chest, pressing close, and murmurs: “I love you. I love you, Izumi. I’ll take care of you.” 

The weight of his body on top of you is comforting, but it’s distant, too. When your body reacts to his kisses, it feels like it’s happening to someone else. Is he going to notice you’re not there? Has he already noticed, but decided not to address the elephant in the room? 

Sakyo takes your hand and guides it downward, making you press your palm over the bulge in his pants. It’s softer than you thought it might be, warm and pliant. The blood pumping through makes it throb under your touch, like it’s alive on its own. Dicks probably aren’t meant to make you think of alien movies. 

“Touch it,” he directs. Hey, isn’t that supposed to be your job? You don’t say that joke out loud. It would probably ruin the mood he’s in. 

You slip down his pants and touch it. 

It’s flattering, how hard he’s gotten because of you. You’ve barely done anything to him and he’s already like this, thrumming with desire for Izumi Tachibana. You feel a little bit like throwing up. 

Sakyo stiffens, and lets out a low moan that goes straight to your cunt. Your underwear is getting sticky. He kisses you again, kisses you breathless, kisses you so you don’t have to speak your feelings into words. If you faint in the middle of this, will he stay in your bed or go back to his room? 

A spot on the ceiling catches your eye, so you focus on that point. In the periphery of your vision, Sakyo is slipping out of his pants and underwear, and he positions himself between your legs, gently guiding your limbs to where they should be. 

Your breath doesn’t quite make it out of your throat. The air is thin up here, maybe the dorms shouldn’t have been furnitured with loft beds. Would Tetsuro be willing to offer a hand there? You’ll have to get Matsukawa to help translate. 

“Are you on birth control?”

It takes a few seconds for you to register that Sakyo is talking to you, Izumi. 

“Uh, yeah. I am.”

“I wanted to check. Better safe than sorry. It’s much too early to be worrying about even more kids running around.”

He smiles at you like he’s expecting you to smile back, so you do. Your ribcage is being crushed under the weight of the words he just said so lightly. 

Sakyo braces himself with one hand on your waist, and then slides his cock into you, a foreign object entering your body, stretching you open. It doesn’t… hurt? 

That’s good, right? 

Everything is wet and warm and sticky. His hands roam over your body, grope at your breasts, tuck hair behind your ear. The entire foundation of literature and every movie you’ve ever seen tell you that this is love. 

“Does it hurt?”

“...Ah—no, ah. Mmph—” 

He moves inside of you, just a little bit, and still it doesn’t hurt but it feels... weird. Is it supposed to feel this weird? You haven’t had sex in a long time. 

It’s easier with your eyes shut, blocking out your surroundings and the weight of Sakyo’s loving gaze. He groans again, and you laugh at the sound of it for no reason at all. It comes out a little hysterical. 

He flicks your forehead. 

“Hey! That was—mmph, ah, uncalled for.” Tears sting at the corners of your eyes. The flick didn’t hurt or anything, but it’s shaken the cup of water you’ve been precariously balancing in your brain. 

“You’re still a brat, and a million years too early to be—,” he grunts and thrusts into you again, “—laughing at me.” 

You exhale something in between a laugh and a desperate sob. 

“Director?”

Azuma puts his hand on your shoulder. 

“...You look like you’ve seen a ghost, dear.” He presses his lips into a thin line of concern, staring at you like you’ve transformed into a glass sculpture that might break if the wind blows too heavy. 

“I’m fine. I’m just tired.”

It doesn’t sound half as convincing as you wish it was.

**Author's Note:**

> (projects my lesbian beam on izumi tachibana)
> 
> i couldnt finish all i wanted in time but:  
> \- azuma talks to izumi  
> \- then she cries and tells him about how she feels guilty bc shes secretly dating sakyo now + thinks he loves her more than she loves him  
> \- izumi can't sleep in her own bed bc its tainted with the memories of when they had sex that night  
> \- azuma offers to cuddle and help her sleep (in his room) and she takes the offer bc she feels safer with mankai's resident Obviously Queer Person  
> \- then she has azuma as a confidant and eventually realizes she loves sakyo but doesn't like men  
> \- they have a messy breakup that eventually settles  
> \- everyone's friends in the end  
> \- mankai company please get therapy


End file.
